SEA93LA008 · James R. Prideaux AVID FLYER
James R. Prideaux AVID FLYER · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From Mountain Home Air Force Base (MUO) to U35 · Caldwell, ID
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA93LA008
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
James R. Prideaux AVID FLYER
- Aircraft type
- James R Prideaux AVID FLYER
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N81AF
- Operator
- James R. Prideaux · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mountain Home Air Force Base (MUO)To U35 · Caldwell, ID
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Takeoff · roll/run
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control on ground/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AT THE CONCLUSION OF AN AIR SHOW, THE AIRPLANE WAS CLEARED FOR RELEASE BY THE AIR SHOW COORDINATOR. THE COORDINATOR WAS TOLD BY ATC THAT RUNWAY 12 WAS THE ACTIVE. THE PILOT STATED TO THE AIR SHOW COORDINATOR THAT HE DIDN'T WANT TO TAKE OFF ON THIS RUNWAY, AS THE WINDS FAVORED RUNWAY 30, AND THAT HIS AIRPLANE COULD NOT HANDLE A TAIL WIND COMPONENT ON TAKE OFF. AFTER CALLS WERE MADE TO AIR TRAFFIC PERSONNEL ABOUT THE ACTIVE RUNWAY, THE PILOT WAS INFORMED THAT RUNWAY 12 WAS STILL ACTIVE AND HE WAS CLEARED FOR TAKE-OFF ON RUNWAY 12. DURING THE TAKE-OFF GROUND RUN, THE AIRPLANE VEERED SHARPLY TO THE LEFT AND THE LEFT WING CONTACTED THE GROUND. THE PILOT REDUCED POWER AND ATTEMPTED TO STRAIGHTEN THE DIRECTION OF TRAVEL; HOWEVER, THE RIGHT WING THEN CONTACTED THE GROUND AND THE AIRPLANE CAME TO A STOP. THE WINDS WERE REPORTED FROM 230 DEGREES AT SIX KNOTS.
Probable cause
DIRECTIONAL CONTROL WAS NOT MAINTAINED. A FACTOR TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: A TAIL WIND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA93LA008
- Event ID
- 20001211X15965
- Case number
- SEA93LA008
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 883b4b09590c26588fbf23853ae84d46f6a9d951dbcbd4f3b75790f3d1a50284; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:32:48.637Z.